Elder Patricio M. Giuffra, General Authority Seventy, spoke during the Saturday morning session of October 2021 general conference. He recounted his conversion story to the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited all to increase faith in Him. The following is a summary of what he said.
Notable quotes from Elder Giuffra
“Her prayer was not a repetition of memorized words but an expression from her heart. I felt she was really talking to her Heavenly Father.”
“God listens to all His children’s sincere prayers, and heaven is open to all — not just a few.”
“I invite us all to continually increase our faith in Christ, who has changed the lives of my beloved mother and me and continues to change the lives of all who seek Him.”
Summary of Elder Giuffra’s talk
At age 14, Elder Giuffra and his mother were taught by Latter-day Saint missionaries about Christ, the Apostasy and Joseph Smith’s First Vision. “The Spirit confirmed to me several truths.”
- God listens to all His children’s sincere prayers, and heaven is open to all — not just a few.
- God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings, united in purpose “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”
- Man is created in the image of God. Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus have bodies of flesh and bones, but They are glorified and perfected. The Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit.
- Through Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ restored His gospel and true Church to the earth. The priesthood authority conferred on Christ’s ancient Apostles is the same priesthood conferred upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery by Peter, James and John.
- The Book of Mormon teaches how ancient inhabitants of the Americas knew, loved and worshipped Christ, who appeared as the resurrected Savior.
“I invite us all to continually increase our faith in Christ, who has changed the lives of my beloved mother and me and continues to change the lives of all who seek Him.”
About Elder Giuffra
- Elder Patricio M. Giuffra was sustained as a General Authority Seventy at April 2021 general conference.
- Elder Giuffra was born in Valparaíso, Chile, on April 6, 1962, the youngest of the 13 children of Lazaro Dante Giuffra Riffo and Olga Rosa Vargas Canales. He and his widowed mother joined the Church when he was a teenager.
- Between his undergraduate and master’s degrees at Brigham Young University, he returned home to Chile for a visit and met Maria Eugenia Gonzalez Olmos; following a relationship of long-distance calls, they were married Dec. 23, 1992, in the Santiago Chile Temple.
